1001 Reasons Why People Suck

And other random thoughts...

Wednesday, January 07, 2004

Somehow I continue to be amazed by the stupidity, irresponsibility, and the gall of people today. Words can't adequately describe how stunned I am by this news article. I thought it was bad when people started blaming fast food restaurants for their excess weight. But this just goes so far beyond that. Allow me to introduce to you one among the ranks of the truly pathetic. A man who is the embodiment of Sloth. Not only is he lazy in the physical sense of the word, but he’s too lazy to take responsibility for his laziness. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you: The Reporter - Man says he’s addicted to cable; wants to sue Charter

I’m sure you think it can’t get any worse than that. Well, you’d be wrong. “Cable TV made a West Bend man addicted to TV, caused his wife to be overweight and his kids to be lazy, he says. And he’s threatening to sue the cable company. Dumouchel blames Charter for his TV addiction, his wife’s 50-pound weight gain and his children’s being “lazy channel surfers,” according to a Fond du Lac police report.” What is he suing for? “Timothy Dumouchel of West Bend wants $5,000 or three computers, and a lifetime supply of free Internet service from Charter Communications to settle what he says will be a small claims suit.”

So to recap, lazy man sues cable company for making him and his family lazy and overweight. He expects compensation in the form of computers and internet access so the cable company can cause him to be lazy and overweight in front of a computer instead of a tv.

Please, please god give me powers to smite those whose only use to humanity is as fertilizer.

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

“Los Angeles County officials have gone PC (politically correct) on PCs (personal computers) -- banning as potentially “offensive or defamatory” the words master and slave from computer hard drives and video equipment where they are used to describe primary and secondary circuits.”

This politically correct bull shit is really getting on my nerves. To what extent are people going to go to make sure no one’s “insulted” by a term. What if the removal of a term insults someone else? I bet people in the BDSM lifestyle would be offended at the removal of Master/Slave from computer devices. After all, the removal of those words implies that it's bad, which implies that what they do is bad. Hell, I feel offended for them already.

Maybe we should just all hold hands and sing. This is what happens when the hippies from the 60s get into positions of power. They’re creating a generation of spineless, whimpy crybabies. “Awwww.... does that word hurt the wittle guys fweelings? We’ll just change it to something else. There you go. Are you all better now?” I mean, come on. The Master/Slave terminology is an industry standard. Everyone in the industry understands that it’s in reference to IDE devices, not slavery.

“Dennis A. Tafoya, director of the affirmative action office, said an African-American employee who filed the complaint felt it was employment discrimination because the employee was working on video equipment with the label written on it.”

“‘The issue was the employee had to operate this equipment and look at the term ‘slave and master,’ and given their background as an African-American person, I imagine they had different feelings about it,’ Tafoya said.”

You know, I’m sorry that slavery was legal in America at one point – 138 years ago to be exact. But to take offense at that word is just asinine. It's quite possible that the person who took offense doesn’t even have ancestors that were slaves in America. There has been and still is immigration from Africa, thus reducing the percentage of “slave families.” And, African-Americans weren’t the only people who were slaves at one point in our Earth’s history, nor were they the last. Slavery still exists today in parts of the world. It’s very possible, most likely probable, that an ancestor of mine was a slave. But, I’m not offended by the word. And I think that getting offended by a word used in reference to a hardware device is ludicrous. Maybe we should just strike both of those words from the English language.

How ridiculous is this going to get? If I was in mining, would the entire industry change their terminology because I found “cracker” to be offensive? What about Spic n’ Span cleaners? How many Latinos might be offended by that?

As a friend said to me who agreed with my view on this, “Politically correct is a mutant that has outlived its usefulness and as such, should be put down like the rabid dog that it is.”

Wednesday, October 22, 2003

Today, six days after she was removed from life support, a bill was passed allowing Gov. Jeb Bush to have the woman reconnected to life support. This bill was rushed through specifically so this could be done. Here is an example of the government sticking their noses where it doesn’t belong and proves the point I made in my synthesis paper. Laws should not be passed based on personal feeling. Even some of those who voted to pass the bill realized they were doing something wrong. Senate President Jim King said, “I hope, I really do hope we’ve done the right thing. I keep on thinking, ‘What if Terri didn’t really want this done at all?’ May God have mercy on all of us.”

The whole right to die issue really bothers me. It bothers me that it’s an issue. People should have to right to do anything to their own bodies so long as they are not harming another. In this case, Schiavo told her husband that she did not want to be kept alive should she be in the state she is currently in. She’s been in a coma for 13 years. Her husband realizes that she’s not coming back and that it’s time to honor her wishes. I think her parents just don’t want to face reality. Yes, I’m sure it’s a difficult decision, but let’s use some logic.

This reminds me of another pet peeve of mine. Youth in Asia, as I tend to think of it. Try spelling that the correct way using Hooked On Phonics. Euthanasia and the whole Dr. Kevorkian issue. Again with the people-should-be-able-to-do-whatever-they-want-to-themselves-without-interference-from-anyone point. If I have some terminal disease and am suffering greatly because of it, I want someone to be able to help me to die without worrying about them being accused of murder. I sincerely hope that every person who thinks it is wrong to put yourself or have yourself put out of your misery – and especially those who vote against the right to do this – die of some horribly painful disease so they can see what it’s like. So they can feel what they made others have to go through. I see it as torture to force a person to remain alive through agonizing pain when they are just going to die from the illness anyway. What kind of sick and demented person would wish that on someone? So I truly hope those who oppose this develop stomach cancer or bone cancer or AIDS. They need to feel what they’ve forced other’s to go through.

Sunday, September 07, 2003

Give me a break. I'm so sick of hearing people blame companies and rock groups for the violence that kids do. "It was Marilyn Manson's fault and "The Matrix" maker’s fault for Columbine," "It was Metallica's fault for a boy's suicide"... I knew it was only a matter of time before someone blamed the makers of Grand Theft Auto. I've played the game. It's an excellent game but no one but an adult has any business playing it.

Be that as it may, I still think it is ultimately the parents' responsibility for what their children have contact with and the values instilled in their children. Any one teaching their children common sense and right and wrong, and who disciplines their children, would never have a child who did this - no matter how many graphic video games he or she played.

Why is it that the parents are never at fault when their child does something like this? No one ever thinks, "Wow, the parents sure dropped the ball on raising this kid." No. They think, "This company made this product that caused these kids to kill people." Um, why did these kids never get that killing is bad? Who do you think was supposed to teach them that? Do you think that if someone had taught them the value of life that maybe this wouldn't have happened? Do you think that if someone had made these kids accountable for other misdeeds they had done that maybe they would have understood that shooting at cars is wrong?

I love this line: "The industry needs to cough up money so victims and their families can be compensated for their pain." Compensated for their pain!?! Will this money make them feel better? Is there a price on their loved one's life? When they look at their brand new house will they think, "Bobby's life paid for this?" I fail to understand how suing a game maker will stop children from committing violent crimes. Sue the parents! They're the ones didn't do their job. Make parents so paranoid about being sued that they raise their children with proper values. Maybe then there will be less people to write about in my blog.

Oops! I don't know how I did it, but I put in the wrong description for the "M" rating for video games. Thanks to Zach for letting me know. The correct description is: "MATURE
Have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain mature sexual themes, more intense violence and/or strong language."

Saturday, August 30, 2003

Well, I did it again. I foolishly, naively, and really without any thought at all, gave an entire group of people the benefit of the doubt. Of course it came back and kicked me in the ass. I feel so stupid.

I was so proud of my users. The Sobig.F email worm came out and not a one of them opened it. They've finally listened to all the email warnings I put out. "Silly little admin. You should know that users are too stupid to keep from opening a virus!"

I really was proud of them. Sigh... As it turns out, the antivirus server stopped sending me the emails it was supposed to. The computer got a reboot on Wednesday after I installed some updates. Thursday morning I was greeted with 40 "virus found" emails. I felt so let down and disappointed. And stupid. How could I have been so dumb as to believe none of my users would open a virus infected email? I guess because I don't understand how after all the email warnings I sent out that they still don't get it. I mean, how hard is it to remember not to open an attachment with a .pif extension? I've only told them not to do it at least once a month for the past year. Clearly, they aren't reading my emails. Or they just don't care. It's insulting. This is important stuff. Sobig.F came out so fast that there was a real chance that someone could have opened it before the antivirus definitions were updated across the campus. Users need to take responsibility for computer security because computers admins can't possibly prevent every scenario for infection.

I noticed that within the list of opened viruses there was a familiar name. Well, they're all familiar; I know practically everyone who works there. This was familiar because of the number of times I've seen his name in one of the "virus found" emails. I swear this guy opens every virus laden email he gets. Why do you suppose that is? Is he too stupid to do otherwise? I think the real reason is he's too arrogant. I've met the guy and I've heard stories from other people in my department. This guy thinks he's god's gift to the world. I'm sure he opens these attachments because he feels he's too important to bother with worrying about viruses. That's the computer department's job. And, yes, it is our job. But when you don't have any money to spend on cool gadgets like an email gateway virus scanner for instance, you have to rely on the users having some brains.

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

Few things are more annoying than someone who pays no attention to important information you send them. You know they’ve paid no attention when they email you asking a question that you clearly answered in an email you sent out just a day before, or a week before, or even an hour before. It’s even more annoying when you send them those emails a second time and they have to gall to ask you the same question again. Apparently, these people need someone to personally come to their desk with a giant picture drawn out for them. Surprisingly, these people have PhDs. You’d think that would make them smart. I guess all the “smart” in their brains flow to the parts that are used in their fields of study leaving the other areas of their brains empty. Lucky me.

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

I'm confused about something. Where does the Archdiocese's get off even offering to settle lawsuits for money? A whopping $55 million. That money belongs to every Catholic church member who ever gave money to the church. That money does not belong to the men who actually did the crimes. Sounds to me like the Catholic church members are being raped all over again and the guilty parties are getting off (pun intended). How exactly is giving other people's money away punishing the criminals? All it will accomplish is punishing the church members. These priests and bishops should be the ones paying out money.

And while I'm talking about the Catholic church, who the hell do they think they are spouting off how evil homosexuality is when they covered for and had so many pedophile homosexuals in their ranks. Not to mention all their other evil deeds.